AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in High Church: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, keep the ignition and motor off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not run, it's drained and fully cleaned where your car sits in High Church. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
AdBlue in a diesel vehicle: two tanks, two fillers
Many current diesels on the roads round High Church and Stobhill carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Many of motors share a single flap for the two, while others move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is filled far less regularly, normally from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in that gap that the slip happens.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs in High Church
Rarely is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a drive off Rutherford Place before work, or in the car park outside The Wansbeck heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the car is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of High Church or out in Morpeth.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a High Church forecourt or a drive over in Tranwell, spend a few seconds over these before any goes in.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often says which fuel goes where, on many vehicles. Look for it.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Morpeth's car park, say — not once the warning comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
On the day the light appears — wherever you are across Northumberland — a routine to follow.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Castle Meadows.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the car on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Skip stage five altogether.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around High Church?
The short order of things, beginning with no starting your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of the tank, just where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help push the vehicle away from the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Shell or anywhere else. If you're on your own drive in High Church, leave the car where it stands.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the A167(M), under 15 miles from High Church, that means the next junction. Distance matters — a quick hop across High Church is a smaller job than driving under 15 miles to Newcastle upon Tyne — so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive around High Church, what takes place?
Anywhere the car came to rest, whether by Abbeyfields First School, near Storey Park Community Centre or on your own drive, our van comes to it. Both the work and the quote depend on three answers — which liquid, what quantity, and whether it's run — so we ask. Nobody sets off before you've had our quote by phone.
Then your tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. A test comes last: before that, clean diesel is added, and the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, our technicians fire it up and check that it is running smoothly.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying happens on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Misfuelling cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — and so use the wait to check yours.
About High Church, for a moment
High Church is a locality situated on the riverside in Northumberland, with an elevation of 51 metres and a mix of semi-detached housing. High Church lies near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, approximately 13 miles away, and is also close to nearby places such as Morpeth and Stobhillgate. High Church is part of a larger residential area with a population of around 2429 people. High Church has a relatively low elevation, typical of the coastal and riverside areas of Northumberland.
AdBlue drains around High Church, and Northumberland beyond
High Church is a small village, and the teams that cover it also work the places near it, Stobhillgate and Loansdean among them, across the NE postcode area. Give a postcode that starts NE61 2, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting your car isn't needed. Draining happens right there, whether a driveway, a street near St Mary the Virgin Church, or a layby on the way to Carlisle Park. Guessing won't help behind Ha' Hill, on a border, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
The short version for High Church drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere in Northumberland, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — so leave the vehicle off and phone 0333 366 0103.